Word: droughts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...other extreme: the rapid extinguishing of all forest fires. Residents, tourists and area politicians have already sharply criticized the Park Service for waiting too long before moving to contain the latest blazes. "I question the wisdom of sticking to the policy in a year like this, with these severe drought and weather conditions," said Montana Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat. Wyoming Senator Malcolm Wallop, a Republican, agreed, adding his worry about the impact of the fires on the local economy. "We've had a catastrophe in our tourist industry," he said...
...last time grocery-store customers stared at prices with such dismay was in the 1970s, when inflation was moving as fast as the numbers on a cash register. This summer the drought has sent food prices leaping again, even though inflation in the rest of the economy remains at tolerable levels. The Government said last week that during July the Consumer Price Index rose 0.4%, an annual rate of 5.2%. But the subindex for food and beverages jumped 0.9%, raising the possibility of double-digit inflation at the supermarket. Among the hardest hit in July: fruits and vegetables (4.7%), poultry...
...Once the drought ends, commercial traffic is likely to decrease again, but not necessarily to previous low levels. Says Pat Ross, an administrator of Tenn-Tom's Development Authority: "At least this experience will give new users a history of operating on the Tenn-Tom, and that's got to be good for our future...
What Azenha and other foreign journalists who attended last week's Republican Convention painfully discovered was that finding a story they could break in New Orleans was about as likely as encountering a flood of the drought-stricken Mississippi River. Even when controversy arose over George Bush's running mate, Senator Dan Quayle, many reporters from abroad had trouble developing fresh leads on the story, lacking as they did the facilities and long-standing contacts of their American colleagues...
Farmers are not the only ones praying for rain. The drought has also meant big trouble for Chubb, the 16th largest U.S. property and casualty insurer (assets: $9.2 billion). Reason: the Warren, N.J., company inadvertently plunged too deep into the rain-insurance business. Chubb's policies, designed to reimburse farmers for crop damage due to low rainfall, sold faster than roadside lemonade in ten Midwestern and Southern states last June, before the full impact of the drought was apparent. By the June 15 application deadline, Chubb's independent managing agent, Good Weather International of Jericho, N.Y., had received more than...